Val

Let's cut to Mancountry/the Forgotten Island, the last remnant of any "wilderness" we see in all of TV World, where the Man says:

I guess I do question if when he says "the whole world looked like this" he means that it was like... A video game??? Or everything was green???? Or just in a general sense that it was more wild???? Or maybe all of the above. Because either way, the whole world used to be Undertale. For some reason.

I think the Forgotten Man and the Shuttah are talking about what the Dark World looked like before the Dreemurrs bought the TV and brought Tenna home. Or, maybe they're describing what the world used to look like before Tenna frequently began to be watched by the family...? One of the two.

But, crucially, I also think this is a representation of Kris having grown up and lost the light and wonder of their childhood. A representation told a little bit through our experience as players, too.

Because Undertale is something the large majority of Deltarune players obviously have a lot of nostalgia for. Once upon a time, when many of us were children, the whole world was a frozen waste, a watery basin, a metal desert; it was a great wilderness, with no infrastructure to force you into society, nothing to force you into contracts or societal obligations or anything of the sort.

But overtime, we had no choice but to grow older and watch as ourselves and the world around us changed. The new things we had to focus on in life, the boring things, the mundane things; all of these things were built over the time we spent loving Undertale without a worry in the world.

Of course, this is a bit of a dramatization, I know none of us... Forgot about Undertale to the point of having to be reminded about it by a Childhood trauma Tree man????? But still You get what i mean hopefully LOL

And again, the same goes for Kris, even though they have no frame of reference for the descriptions of what TV World used to be. We know the Forgotten Man has SOME kind of connection to them personally, as well as their childhood. After all, the Forgotten Man says "the whole world used to look like this," and then says:

So not only can he only speak in Kris's Dark World, he can only speak in the last remnant of the nostalgic wilderness that used to be their Dark World's entire landscape. Yeah that feels pretty supportive of this idea I think LOL

The whole world used to look like this: wild, free, barren of reminders of the things that have gone wrong or all the things that have changed. Maybe it all used to look like the video games little Kris enjoyed... the ones they inadvertently played with Ramb. But either way, it was childhood innocence, plain and simplistic fun.

Hell, not only is the island the last remnant of the wilderness, it's the only place that seems to house the people who never joined Tenna's contract, the Seven Flying Aces. Based on what the Shuttah says about how people who didn't like Tenna's change left, I think the Aces might've been some of those people. Especially since Kris apparently lost them in the couch, maybe them leaving and not joining the contract is the Dark World's representation of that.

Either way... as Kris grew older, as some kinds of strange and terrible things happened to them and their life never improved again, all of the simplistic innocence that used to exist here began to disappear.

In TV world, Society was built over the wild: boring things, contracts, jobs, a world that is organized and trying to be fresh and conform to the present day, and yet is desperately clinging to the way things used to be.

In the real world, what was built on top of the wild was boring, hard for a child to understand, yet life-altering all the same. Maybe it was struggles with money as Kris's father lost his job; divorce proceedings and custody arrangements; their brother leaving for college. Either way, in both worlds, things continued to change until all that was left of what used to be was this single island.

Kris never seems to talk much about their childhood, anyway. Noelle reminisces so much about all the things they did together whenever she's around them, but we have no indication that Kris ever says anything similar, or ever presents memories of their own.

I doubt they like talking about it. They'd probably rather this island not be here at all, with how they have apparently forgot the Man countless times before. But no matter what the deal is, there's at least SOME part of them that still wishes they could go back to these times. If there wasn't, why would the Man appear and speak at all?

And if the Forgotten Man does have some kind of connection to whatever traumatic events they've suffered, as I think is extremely likely, We already know that no matter how hard they try, they "can never wash it all away."

And at the end of it all...

It's unclear how soon he means by "soon" because just prior to this dialogue, the Man says "But one day, this island will disappear, too." The phrasing of "one day" versus "soon" does seem confusing and brings to mind different time frames... But change can come in sudden and unexpected ways, after all.

Either way, the world marches on. Forgotten Island is the last haven for those who didn't join Tenna's contract, the last group of people who refused to join the march of changing times. The last reminder of the times we spent with Undertale when we were young, But try as one might, no one can escape the march of time forever.

But even if this island will disappear one day, that doesn't mean it'll be the end of good times you had like when you were a child.

Kris may not understand this yet... But no matter how much is built around the places you grew up, no matter how much you try to forget everything the reminders of your past, no matter how much things change, no matter how much you've moved away from Undertale: